The Fight Against Terrorism: Long History Of War On Terrorism (Essay Sample)

LONG HISTORY OF WAR ON TERRORISM Student’s Name Course Date There is no single nation in the world that has taken interest in the fight against terrorism like the United States. Terrorism is a term used to refer to outlawed organizations with diverse political factions within a country. Historically, the Muslim world has been associated with terrorism and this has created discrimination of Muslims in the world. Sohail Daulatzai’s book Black Star, Crescent Moon: The Muslim International and Black Freedom beyond America covers the American understanding of the Black people and the western view of Muslims and the black people. In this book, Daulatzai focuses on the life of Malcolm X, a twentieth-century black-Muslim activist who was later assassinated in Harlem for speaking against the United States. This paper reviews the five chapters of Daulatzai’s book to understand the American’s fight against terrorism and the Black Nationalism and Black Islam. In the first chapter of Daulatzai’s book, the author looks at the events that covered the post-second world war and the struggle for independence in Asia countries and African countries. During this era, the United States was silently engaged in the cold war with the USSR. The U.S’ main challenge at this era was how it could handle black activists in Africa while at the same time striving to contain the spread of communism. Malcolm X happened to live in this era and played a significant role in shaping the Third World movements and fight for independence. As a Black Muslim-faith activist, Malcolm traveled through Egypt, Algiers, Indonesia, and Palestine, carrying a message of unifying the Third World Countries. It is this message that created friction between the U.S and Malcolm X. As Daulatzai puts it, the post-second-world-war era was a rough and rugged domain in which the U.S used its superpowers status to seize and influence the emergence of African countries both domestically and in Africa and Asia. The reason why the U.S was strongly against decolonization was that it feared that “…decolonization would create a vacuum of power and make Asian and African countries victims of communism.” The U.S then decided to strengthen the colonial masters. This was a blow to the black activists like Malcolm X, whose main message during this era was to end colonization. Malcolm viewed the United States as a colonial country just like the European countries. Malcolm described the United States as “…a colonial power as England or France …” The U.S could not withstand this truth and viewed Malcolm as a terrorist. The bullets silenced him in 1965 when he was assassinated in Harlem.[Daulatzai, Sohail. Black Star, Crescent Moon: The Muslim International and Black Freedom beyond America. (London: University of Minnesota Press, 2012.), 72. Ibid., 8] [3. Daulatzai, 9] [Ibid., 10] [4. Ibid.,38] The second chapter explores the events in the 1960s and 1970s when the U.S was an active imperial state to the extent that it also sought to control the outer space. Unfortunately, the U.S' policy of imperialism spelled doom for Africa and Asia. Blacks in the U.S were not spared of the U.S’ imperialism. Civil Rights Movements suffered setbacks in their quest for equality because the U.S thought that Third World Countries were too weak to control themselves. Before his assassination, Malcolm X had claimed publicly that Black Islam was the only unifying force between the oppressed blacks in the U.S and the Third World countries. Malcolm spoke defiantly against the U.s and argued that liberation could not come from the outside world but from the oppressed. After his death, Malcolm had already left an imprint in the hearts of the black people that they were to save themselves and not expect any help from the outside world. The emerging young activists carried on the fight in Malcolm’s spirit and are still doing that today. In 1965 days after Malcolm's death, an Afro-Asian conference was held in Algeria and the message was how to save the Third world from imperialist America. This implies that Malcolm had already impacted the world and the bullet had not shuttered the ideas he had created.[5. Ibid., 40] [6. Daulatzai, 81] The third chapter covers the events after Malcolm’s death and the role of popular culture. In the 1980s and 1990s, popular artists had picked up Malcolm’s message. One should not ignore the fact that as early as the 1960s, the U.S had already labeled the Third World activists as terrorists and a threat to the U.S' extension of the European’s empire in Africa and Asia. Thus, even as artists played Malcolm’s prophetic songs about Black Nationalism and the unification of Africa and Asia, they had to do it selectively to avoid being targeted. Unfortunate to the U.S, black radicalization had already gathered enough momentum. Muslims' hatred of the Americans had already materialized especially after the U.S had publicly shown that Muslims are terrorists. The terror attack of 9/11 was just but a confirmation that the U.S and the Muslims were not ready to share common interests.[Ibid., 90] The fourth chapter discusses how America tries to redefine itself as a moral nation that seeks to integrate Black Nationalism in its discourse. America celebrates the file of Muhammad Ali as a national hero, even when Muslims are viewed as radicals. America has realized that it ca...